


Fixity

by BeautifulThief



Series: Permanence [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Kise is a shameless oversharer, M/M, childhood friend au, which is why this is rated the way it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 18:31:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2631935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulThief/pseuds/BeautifulThief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>noun:</i> the state of being unchanging or permanent.<br/><i>synonyms:</i> permanence</p><p>They’re dumb boys, but they’re <i>her</i> dumb boys, at the end of the day. And three is all they’ve ever really known anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fixity

**Author's Note:**

> Companion piece to Constancy and Devotion/the final part of my Permanence series, my gratuitous childhood friends au that no one was supposed to want or like but APPARENTLY? PEOPLE DO?
> 
> Dedicated to cimberelly and limitlessmonster for enabling these two companion pieces.

Satsuki has a photo album that lives on the bottom of her bookshelf, and her favourite pictures in it, in no particular order are:

The one where they are four and Ryouta and Daiki are dressed up in fairy wings with her and having a pretend tea party – the fact that they both are horrifically embarrassed by this picture is half the fun;

The ones where the three of them are standing side by side and hand in hand in front of a tree, one taken every year between the ages of six and twelve;

The one where Daiki and Ryouta are celebrating after winning Nationals at Teikou in second year;

The one taken at the beach when they were seventeen and her boys are either side of her;

The ones taken at their graduation ceremonies – Satsuki between Daiki and Ryouta at Touou, and Ryouta between her and Daiki at Kaijou;

And the one that was taken on their first day of school, where the three of them are walking side-by-side towards the doors and Ryouta is crying even though Satsuki and Daiki both have one of his hands clasped in theirs.

 

* * *

 

Satsuki knew Daiki and Ryouta were in love before they did.

They were seven years old and she watched as Daiki looked over towards the side of the park Ryouta should have come from by now, because even though he said he wasn’t, he was _definitely_ waiting for him to arrive, and they both knew Ryouta should have been here already. Satsuki was about to say something, but then Daiki frowned and _left his basketball behind_ as he ran towards the park entrance that was closest to their houses. As Satsuki ran after him, she saw what had made Daiki move; Ryouta was looking at the ground and two older boys who’d taken a liking to picking on him since they’d noticed he and Satsuki sometimes wore the same clothes were looming over him.

Their stupid, fearless best friend pushed his way between Ryouta and the older boys and started kicking at their shins and yelling at them to go away and leave Ryouta alone and Satsuki would have sworn that Ryouta’s eyes were full of stars and not unshed tears; and that was when the dots metaphorically connected.

And at the time she was afraid that one day they would form a group of just the two of them and she would be left out and alone. She saw it every day, after all – girls and boys didn’t play together at school, because girls thought boys were gross (and well, they weren’t _wrong_ ), and boys thought girls were boring (which was _dead_ wrong) – and while _she_ knew better than those other kids, she had four years of experience to tell her that both Daiki and Ryouta were _dumb_ , and what if they were stupid enough to start believing it too?

It wasn’t until she was older that she fully made the connection that she was just as important to them as they were to her, and that the fact that they loved each other differently to how they loved her did not mean that they loved her any _less_ than they loved each other.

It’s around about then that she realises they need her _way_ more than she needs them, but that she probably likes it best that way anyway.

It’s three years after she learns that they’re in love with each other that she tells Daiki what he ought to already know, but doesn’t because he’s an idiot.

“Ryou-chan loves you.”

 

* * *

 

When they are eleven, Satsuki gets tonsillitis and loses her voice the evening that her and Daiki’s families are supposed to go to Ryouta’s house for dinner. She insists on going even though she’s sick, and ends up spending the evening in Ryouta’s bed. Daiki and Ryouta run ‘missions’ for her, which mostly comprise of sneaking into Ryouta’s sister’s rooms to steal things like their stuffed toys, hair accessories, and fake, plastic jewellery.

Honestly, she’d have felt better if they’d sat down and stayed with her to keep her company, and maybe played a board game or something, but she knows that Daiki and Ryouta would never be able to sit still for the entire duration of any board game. (And if they tried, they would probably end up fighting because they’d both rather cheat than lose to each other.)

Besides, she knows that this is just their way of showing how worried they are.

 

* * *

 

They are still eleven when Daiki triggers the loss of all of their first kisses.

She really should have seen it coming; she’s probably angriest at herself for not predicting that it would happen. After all, Ryouta and Daiki are pretty much open books to her.

But that still doesn’t mean that Satsuki’s not _furious_ with Daiki. He and Ryouta often make her angry, because they’re dumb boys who do dumb things, but she’s never felt such a fierce anger in her life, and she’s so overwhelmed by his thoughtlessness that she flies at him to hit him with her fists because he’s _horrible_ , he’s _terrible_ , he’s the _worst!_ And she has to punish him, make him understand just how _awful_ he is.

When Ryouta tackles her off of Daiki, she’s knocked out from her mindless fury into something more uniquely _her_ , and she runs cold and calculating as she glares at Daiki.

Then it _hits_ her; the perfect revenge.

Best served cold, after all.

So she smiles, and she kisses Ryouta.

(Because after all, she already knows that one day, Daiki will realise he wants what she just took.)

Though, when she calms down a bit more, she feels very guilty for dragging Ryouta into the middle of it.

 

* * *

 

Even though they are the best friends in the world, Daiki and Ryouta fight a lot. This wouldn’t be a problem except that neither of them knows how to back down, and both of them are too pig-headed for their own goods, so when they have big fights, they won’t make up until Satsuki does something about it.

After their biggest ever fight, over Ryouta’s decision to attend Kaijou instead of going to Touou with them, Satsuki leaves them to sort it out because they have to learn how to sort their fights out on their own eventually, and she doesn’t want to seem like she’s picking sides. She especially doesn’t want to look like she’s picking sides when they’re both so hurt by their fight.

(But despite the fact that they’re both miserable, it takes them almost a full _year_ to make up, and they still only do it because she gave up on them doing it themselves and got the details so she knew who to pressure into caving.

Maybe it’s okay this way though; none of them know how to do this any other way than with all three, after all.)

 

* * *

 

“You fought with Ryou-chan.”

 _Thud_. Smack. _Thud_. Smack.

“Dai-chan...”

“Go away, Satsuki.”

 _Thud_. Smack.

“He’s going to live in the dorms. Don’t leave things like this. It’s only going to get harder as more time passes.”

Daiki’s lying on his bed and his face is stony like she’s never seen it before. He’s just throwing a basketball at the wall, and there’s so much raw power in his touch that the thud against the wall feels like its sending vibrations through her, and the smack of the ball on his palms sounds like it should hurt.

Satsuki knows that he’s been told off countless times for throwing his basketballs against the walls of his room, leaving dirty marks all over them, but he didn’t care back then, and he doesn’t care now. He’s always liked to do it when he’s upset. She thinks that he imagines he’s throwing the ball at the person he’s mad at or hurt by.

Seeing Daiki throw the ball against the wall like this would have let her know that they fought, except that she already knew because Ryouta came over a few days ago and he looked like he’d been crying but his eyes were dry and he didn’t say anything more than, “I told him about my decision,” and then convinced her to put on one of her favourite feel-good movies to watch with him.

He’s leaving tomorrow, and he won’t come home for a while.

“Get your giant nose out of it, Satsuki.”

She grits her teeth, and tells herself it doesn’t hurt when he says these awful things. (It does. It hurts so much, and she hates him, she hates him _so much_ for hurting her and hurting Ryouta and hurting Tetsu-kun.

But really, she hates him the most because she loves him so much and she cannot bear watching him systematically isolate himself from everyone who cares about him.)

“Please, talk to Ryou-chan.”

Silence. His gaze flicks over to her face, and then back at the wall. _Thud_. Smack.

“I’ve got nothing to say to Kise.”

She wishes she could un-hear the way he says Ryouta’s last name, prevent the sting that hits her as he does, and wonders how it was that Ryouta never said a word about how she calls Daiki ‘Aomine’ half the time now.

She’s wasting her breath, but she tries anyway.

“Please.”

 _Thud_. Smack.

 

* * *

 

Going to school without Ryouta is lonely.

It’s something she’d logically known to expect, but the full understanding of what it would be like to go to school without Ryouta doesn’t hit until three days after the first day of high school, when Daiki is nowhere to be found at lunch time, and she reflexively thinks _I’ll go find Ryou-chan_ , before she realises that he’s not here to find; he’s not there beside them where he’s always been.

And for a moment, she understands why it is that Daiki is so angry that on the now-rare occasions that when they’re walking together and he sees Ryouta’s image, his face closes up and darkens over like a thundercloud and he walks faster, no matter that his legs are so long now that Satsuki cannot keep pace with him.

She’d walked part of the way home the other day with new girl friends she’d managed to make in her class, but today day she’d had practice, and there was no one to walk home with afterwards because Daiki hadn’t turned up. Ryouta had never made her walk home alone; if he didn’t have a shoot, he’d be at practice even if he messed around half the time instead of doing any proper work, and they’d walk home together afterwards. She missed how even when she knew he was sad because Daiki wasn’t with them, he would smile cheerfully at her and tell her stories about his day; and she missed his smile and the way he’d hug her when she cried because of how horribly empty everything felt at Teikou, and the way he’d always tell her it’d be okay again one day, because Ryouta was nothing if not staunchly optimistic and confident. Because he was sunshine and faith and she too had never really appreciated how much light he’d brought into their everyday lives until it wasn’t there anymore.

 _Miss you Ryou-chan_ , she sends as she walks home. _I hope Kaijou is treating you okay!_

Her phone vibrates almost instantly with responses – Ryouta’s typical response pattern of short bursts of enthusiastic text bombarded her phone telling her about his last few days and suddenly, she feels much less lonely than she did before.

 

* * *

 

Satsuki is sixteen and she is watching her boys try to throw everything away, because all three of them love this sport and each other _too damn much_ , and if anyone thinks that maybe she doesn’t love this just as much as her boys do, then, well... there’s a heavy, guilty feeling in her stomach that’s been sitting there ever since she gave up Ryouta’s secrets for the sake of victory.

(He had to know she would do it, after all. He would give no quarter; so she couldn’t either.)

She is sixteen and she watches Daiki turn away from Ryouta when he’s torn himself apart to try and reach past the wall Daiki has put between himself and them, and she watches the way that Ryouta’s heart breaks and she knows in the way that he grits his teeth to keep the sobs that usually accompany his tears at bay, that he feels like his entire world has just come crashing down around him.

She is sixteen, and she wonders if the three of them will ever really be okay again, and even her brilliant mind and her intuition can’t tell her the answer.

 

* * *

 

(She is sixteen and she wants to cry with Ryouta when Daiki brings him over, an arm around him to support his weight and keep it off his bad leg and she almost can’t believe that they managed to come out the other side of this horrible journey intact.)

 

* * *

 

Even though she encouraged Ryouta to properly pursue Daiki – she already knows Daiki loves him, of course, even if Daiki’s a bit slow on the uptake himself – Satsuki had still been nervous that when the three of them were together, that she would find herself being an enormous third-wheel.

It was difficult, because she really did want them to be happy. She _really_ wanted them to be happy, more than anything in the world, because she loved them so much and they _deserved_ it, after all this time and everything they’d been through; but they were hers as well, and now there would be something special between them that she wasn’t a part of. Which, well, it wasn’t like she _wanted_ to be a part of it, but it was...

Like, when they’d thrown themselves into basketball, Satsuki had started learning all the information, learning about growth and shoes and techniques and everything else so she was just as much a part of it as they had been. It was always _three_ with them.

But this wasn’t like that, it _couldn’t_ be like that, and she’d been sure that something would feel off when they all came back together again.

It wasn’t, of course. They’re usually pretty dumb, but Ryouta tends to be more socially aware than Daiki is, and when the three of them go out shopping together two weeks after Daiki and Ryouta start dating, it’s pretty much the same as it’s always been: Daiki sighs every five minutes and complains about carrying all of Satsuki and Ryouta’s bags (but won’t let either of them take any bags off him); Ryouta still shamelessly models the ugliest clothes he can find in the store because he knows it’ll make Satsuki laugh; and all three of them spend far longer than they want to admit in the sporting goods store. Daiki buys a new basketball, even though he has at least three perfectly fine ones at home (and that doesn’t include the ones in Ryouta’s room), and Ryouta and Daiki get into _yet another_ argument about which basketball shoes are better.

She smiles when Ryouta’s arms sling over her shoulders and lets herself be drawn into the argument – honestly, they’re _both_ wrong and she can’t stand to listen to them be _so wrong_ for another minute.

 

* * *

 

A list of some things that happened the year they turned seventeen

(whether Satsuki wanted to know about them or not):

 

* * *

 

-Ryouta informs Satsuki in far too much detail about the two of them losing their virginity together

 

“Satsucchi!”

Satsuki looks up from her textbook towards the window, where Ryouta is leaning in. “Ryou-chan.” She’s surprised; he hadn’t mentioned that he was going to be home this weekend. “You didn’t tell me you were home.”

He smiles sheepishly. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” she says, and he clambers inside and throws himself on her bed with his usual dramatics.

(She’s distracted trying to solve a particularly difficult math problem. This is why she doesn’t notice he’s moving differently than normal.)

“Satsucchi, are you really studying when I’m here?” he asks not thirty seconds later.

“Shouldn’t you be studying, Ryou-chan?” she responds absently as she writes out her working. She can practically hear him rolling his eyes, though. Of course he _should_ be studying. He was, after all, more pretty face and athletic talent than brain.

“It’ll be fine,” he says, and beckons to her. Satsuki puts her calculator inside her textbook to mark her place and moves to sit next to him on the bed.

“It’s been a while since we had a sleepover,” he says.

“Whose fault is that, mister lives in a dorm in Kanagawa?” Satsuki answers. “Budge your huge ass over, Ryou-chan.”

“Mean, Satsucchi,” he sighs, but he does as he’s told, and she lies down on her stomach next to him. “We should have one tonight, though! Just you and me! No Daicchi.”

“Did you guys have a fight?” Satsuki has to ask. Ryouta pouts.

“No! I just want to spend some quality time with my Satsucchi! Why does everyone always think I have ulterior motives!”

“Because you _do_ ,” she mutters, and he elbows her gently in the side.

“ _Rude_.”

She can probably figure out Ryouta’s ulterior motive if she thinks about it – neither Daiki nor Ryouta were particularly difficult to figure out, because they weren’t really that smart to begin with – but she decides not to. After all, even though he’s done his best to balance his time between Daiki and herself, Ryouta has been neglecting her a little.

She understands, of course, but still. She’d maybe gotten a little too used to having Ryouta to herself last year.

“I don’t think we have any snacks in the house,” she muses. “What do you want to watch?” Then, it occurs to her. “Don’t you have school tomorrow? _I_ have school tomorrow.”

He waves a hand at her. “Details! I don’t have to be back at school until tomorrow afternoon for practice. We won’t stay up too late if you don’t want to, though.”

It’s very telling about Ryouta’s attitude in general that he says “don’t want” instead of “can’t”.

“You didn’t answer my other questions,” she says.

“If you go get snacks, then I’ll bring over this show I think you’ll like,” Ryouta says. “It’s like that one show we were watching last year.”

“You’ll need to be more specific than that, Ryou-chan. We watched a few different shows last year.”

He rolls his eyes, and Satsuki has to wonder if he _actually_ thinks she’s a mind reader, and not just far too familiar with how his and Daiki’s simple brains work.

 He waves his hand at her again. Sometimes, Satsuki understands why Daiki likes to throw things at him so much. Right now is one of those times.

“I’m sure you’ll like it! Unless you have something else you want to watch, because I’m totally up for whatever.”

Satsuki shakes her head. “Give me your wallet, Ryou-chan.”

He sighs dramatically as he digs it out of the back pocket of his jeans. “All you two ever want from me is my money and pretty face,” he whines, but he hands it over anyway. “Make sure you get my favourites too.”

Ryouta isn’t around when she gets back from the trip to the closest convenience store, but she hadn’t expected him to be. Satsuki tells her parents he’ll be over after dinner. They’re fairly used to Daiki and Ryouta dropping by at any time of the day or night, but still, Satsuki tries to warn them if she knows they’re going to be around in advance.

Her mother hums. “It’s been a while since Ryouta was here. He was busy this summer, wasn’t he?”

“Yes,” Satsuki answers. It’s not strictly speaking true, but she’s not sure if she wants to be gossiping with her mother about Ryouta and Daiki’s love life. Actually, Satsuki already knows more about it than she wants to, including that Daiki came in like half a minute the first time Ryouta touched him and that Ryouta’s determined to rid himself of his gag reflex.

(She had point blank refused to help him find out how to do it. There were a lot of things she was willing to do to ensure that Daiki and Ryouta didn’t hurt themselves, but they were definitely on their own when it came to sexual activities.)

Her mother smiles. “I’m glad the three of you are still such good friends. Can you set the table, please, Satsuki?”

Ryouta rings the doorbell around half an hour after dinner ends. She’s curled up on the couch with the plastic bag full of snacks, reading, when her mother lets him in. She hears him exchange pleasantries and chat for a little bit about school and basketball with her mother before he comes in, DVDs in hand.

It’s familiar and soothing to huddle up with Ryouta on the couch under a blanket. He’s much cuddlier than Daiki is. She got a very raw deal only getting Daiki at Touou, and this isn’t the first time she’s thought so. She misses being with Ryouta like this.

It’s about eleven when Ryouta goes to the freezer to dig out ice cream when they have to change discs, and he comes back with what can only be described as _intent_ on his face.

“Satsucchi,” he says as they start trying to arrange themselves comfortably. “Daiki and I had sex.”

She stops trying to make herself comfortable on his shoulder and sits up. “No, _no_ , Ryou-chan, I’ve told you a hundred times I don’t want to know—“

“Come _on_ ,” he whines. “You can tell me when you lose _your_ virginity too!”

“Oh my god, Ryou-chan, no.”

“It was kind of weird at first? I mean we’ve been sort of experimenting with the fingering for a bit—“

“RYOU-CHAN!”

He pauses. Then:

 “You’re going to wake your parents if you keep shouting like that.”

She groans and collapses backwards. “You’re horrible, Ryou-chan. I don’t know why everyone thinks Dai-chan’s the worst, because it’s _definitely_ you.”

He pouts. “Come on, Satsucchi,” he complains. “That’s mean. I need to be able to talk to someone about these things, you know!”

She sticks her hand out towards him. “Give me the ice cream. You don’t deserve it, and I’m going to need it if you’re going to make me sit through hearing about you and Dai-chan bumping uglies.”

Ryouta beams, and passes it to her. She digs a spoon in and sighs.

“So I mean, it’s more work than I thought it would be,” he says and Satsuki already regrets letting this conversation happen. “But well. _You_ know how long I’ve wanted it.”

“Unfortunately,” she mutters under her breath.

He nudges her with his foot. “Porn is just... like, it’s all wrong. Like, I was pretty sure it wasn’t like that at all anyway, but still.”

“Ryou-chan,” she says, deliberately sweet, “would you _like_ me to stab you with this spoon?”

“You’re so melodramatic, Satsucchi,” he says. She stares at him, incredulous, but he keeps going. “Anyway, I mean, I’ve kind of experimented with stuff and Daicchi and I have sort of experimented with some stuff, so you know, prep wasn’t as bad as it could have been, I guess. It was still a bit uncomfortable, but Daicchi was surprisingly patient, you know?”

“I wish I didn’t.”

He nudges her harder with his foot. “Satsucchi.”

She frowns at him from behind the ice cream container. “I said I would listen, not that I would refrain from lamenting the fact that you insist on telling me more than I want to know about what you and Dai-chan do in the privacy of your bedrooms.”

Ryouta sighs. “Such a caring girlfriend I’ve got in you,” he dramatises, lifting his hand to his eyes as if to cover up tears. It’s her turn to nudge him with her foot.

“Don’t extend my misery with your silliness,” she orders.

He huffs, but lets his hand drop, and a small smile tugs at his mouth. “It was just as well I got Daiki off earlier, because when he got in he had that face, the one where he’s like ‘oh shit I’m totally going to embarrass myself’. The one he had the first time I got him off.” Ryouta grins. Satsuki has to admit; he might be horrible, but she does _love_ that he’s horrible.

She just doesn’t like to think about what it says about her.

“And I kind of needed a bit to adjust a little? Daiki’s _big_ , Satsucchi.”

Satsuki groans. “Ryou-chan, _please_.”

Her mind stubbornly filed away that Ryouta slipped up and called him Daiki when he was thinking fondly of him.

“Anyway. I mean, it didn’t really last _very_ long. I’m sure it’ll get better with practice. And Daicchi really made it up with his mouth so you know.”

“You’re done?” she asks. He nods. “Thank god. Please, never subject me to this ever again, Ryou-chan.”

He pouts. “Come on, don’t you wanna know when he finally makes me come just from—“

“ _No!_ ”

 

* * *

 

-Daiki fucks up his knee at the National quarter finals in Autumn

 

The thing was that at the Inter High, Touou and Kaijou had been on opposing sides of the bracket, and Kaijou had been on the same side of the bracket as Rakuzan. Ryouta was good – exceptional, even – but there’s only so far one person’s talent, even as bottomless as Ryouta’s is, can take them against a team so heavily loaded with talent.

(Satsuki remembered looking forward to seeing Ryouta replicate some of the Uncrowned Generals next tournament.)

So, to both of their frustration, Ryouta and Daiki don’t get a chance to square off against each other until the National tournament in Autumn. This time, they’re on the same side of the bracket; they’ll meet in the semi-finals, if things go as planned. One of them will go on to the finals, and the other has to play for third place.

Things do _not_ go as planned.

No one blames her, of course. Except Satsuki herself. _She_ blames herself for not noticing until it was too late to prevent an injury that will keep him out of play for weeks; she’s just been so _busy_ in the lead up to the tournament, scouting and putting together the information for their team, _especially_ the information for Seirin, who was their quarter-final match and...

“Ryou-chan’s going to be so mad at you,” she says to Daiki.

He pulls a face at her. She shouldn’t beat on him when he’s down and miserable, but honestly, it’s the only time when he actually _listens_. Usually his enormous ego is in the way of listening to anything she has to say.

The rest of the team has slunk off in the aftermath of the game; Daiki’s leg had buckled under him towards the end of the second quarter, aided by the sweat on the wood, and Satsuki could still see the surprise and shock on his face as he’d slipped in her mind, and hear the sound he’d made when he’d landed.

She’s seen him take falls before, of course - Daiki had always found it impossible to stay still, and he’d fallen out of more trees than Satsuki could remember – but there was always something especially terrifying about watching Daiki fall.

He always seemed so _invincible_ , right up until the point where you were reminded he wasn’t.

Satsuki can hear her phone ringing in her bag – Ryouta’s ring tone is blaring at her, some poppy song that he loves. It’ll stop soon, she thinks, absently. He’ll need to start his warm up for his own game in a moment.

“Annoying,” Daiki mutters. “Just answer the damn phone.”

“It’s just Ryou-chan,” she responds. “He’ll just ask about you and it’ll distract him in the game if I answer his questions.”

She crouches down and pushes his pant leg up to have a look. Vaguely, she remembers doing this much less carefully nine months ago for Ryouta. She can’t see much, but when she runs her fingers over it, the joint is swollen.

“Did you do your ankle as well?” she asks. He’s done his ankles a number of times too; Satsuki worries that one day he’s going to break one.

“No.”

She sighs, and pulls the leg of his pants down again. Her phone has stopped ringing. “For all that bluster,” she teases, “Touou is yet to win a National tournament, Dai-chan. Maybe I should have followed Ryou-chan instead? I really do hate losing, you know.”

He snorts at her.

“Come on,” he mutters. “Pass me the stupid crutches. Ryouta’ll be even more pissed if we miss his game.”

 

* * *

 

-Satsuki confesses to Kuroko

 

It had been time.

Satsuki had been nursing her crush on Tetsu-kun for a good few years now, and honestly, she was starting to get tired of her own relative timidity. She had, of course, called herself his girlfriend in front of other people, but she knew Tetsu-kun didn’t consider her so, and well. She never had confessed.

She knew going into it she was probably going to get rejected.

Actually, honestly, Satsuki confessed more to take her own advice to Ryouta to help her move forward, than because she expected anything from him.

(It was clear as the sun in the sky and about as undeniable as Ryouta’s good looks, her intelligence, and Daiki’s talent, that Tetsu-kun was in love with Kagamin, after all. Satsuki has seen too much of love, especially between silly boys like hers, to not know it when she sees it.)

Still, it didn’t mean that Tetsu-kun’s kind rejection hurt any less.

She hadn’t told Ryouta or Daiki that she’d planned to do it, but somehow – she suspected Tetsu-kun had told one of them – they’d known, or found out, because that evening, after she’d had some time to cry and calm down, the two of them showed up at her door bearing snacks and ice cream, Daiki looking mildly uncomfortable, as he always was in emotionally charged situations, and Ryouta with a gentle, sympathetic smile.

It had been just enough to make her cry again, so Ryouta had shoved the food at Daiki to give her a hug and walk her backwards into the house to the living room.

The couch was too small for two enormous boys and one girl of average size, and had been for a few years now. But it didn’t stop them from trying to figure out some way to get all three of them to fit.

In the end, Daiki and Ryouta sat next to each other, and Satsuki sat between Daiki’s legs, her head on his shoulder and her legs across Ryouta’s.

“Kurokocchi’s not that great anyway,” Ryouta says, and Satsuki almost laughs because it was so insincere coming from Ryouta, of all people.

She couldn’t see it, but she was sure Daiki was rolling his eyes. “Shut up, Ryouta,” he says. “You’re the last person anyone’s going to believe that from.” His hands are large and rough and gentle where they’re rubbing her arm in what’s probably meant to be a soothing way.

It’s cute how they try.

Ryouta, with the most mobility, ends up putting on her favourite movie, and well.

It could be worse.

Satsuki burrows deeper against Daiki and lets herself feel the warmth of their love.

 

* * *

 

The first time she walks in on them, they are eighteen and she’s honestly kind of surprised it didn’t happen sooner, if only because they are both shameless; _she_ has been _very_ careful in her attempts to not catch an eyeful.

She’s already _heard_ quite enough about it, to be honest. Having a visual to go with the stories is not in her plans.

It’s nearing the end of the year, and she knows Daiki and Ryouta have both already been contacted by scouts to play for universities, even though both of their grades are horrific. They’ve both taken their scoutings as permission to not give a shit about their grades or doing schoolwork, and she just doesn’t know what to do with them anymore.

They were running late to meet up, so she’d gone to check their windows, starting with Daiki’s, because that’s always been how they’ve gone to find each other, and in her annoyance and impatience, she has miscalculated.

She gets an eye full of more of Daiki and Ryouta than she’s wanted to have in a very long time.

They probably don’t deserve the small mercy she gives them of walking away instead of interrupting at the window, but she can barely control her hysterical giggles. She _really_ doesn’t want to see as much as she probably will if she startles them at the window.

Instead, after she manages to get herself back under control, she rings the doorbell to Daiki’s house repeatedly.

Ryouta has sex hair when they come to the door, and Daiki looks very uncomfortable, but they seem to have remembered that they had _plans_.

 (Later, she’ll remind Daiki to _close his goddamn curtains_ and she had never seen him go quite so red before that moment, and was never able to cause it to happen again.

He also never forgets to close the curtains after that.)


End file.
